Capital Perspective: Health Technology

Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy leads a Capital Perspective discussion on the need for better health technology information in hospitals and doctors' offices and the benefits it can bring.

Capital Perspective is a forum for discussions with local community leaders to highlight local and national issues that affect the people of Massachusetts. Senator Kennedy has represented Massachusetts as a democrat on the United States Senate since 1962 and is committed to serving the people of Massachusetts for many years on a wide range of important issues in both foreign and domestic policy.

Edward M. Kennedy was the third longest-serving member of the United States Senate in American history. Voters of Massachusetts elected him to the Senate nine times: a record matched by only one other Senator. The scholar Thomas Mann said his time in the Senate was "an amazing and endurable presence. You want to go back to the 19th century to find parallels, but you won't find parallels." President Barak Obama has described his breathtaking span of accomplishment: "For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health, and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts." He fought for and won battles on voting rights, education, immigration reform, the minimum wage, national service, the nation's first major legislation to combat AIDS, and equality for minorities, women, the disabled and gay Americans. He called health care "the cause of my life", and succeeded in bringing quality and affordable health care for countless Americans, including children, seniors and Americans with disabilities. Until the end he was working tirelessly to achieve historic national health reform. He was an opponent of the Vietnam War and an early champion of the war's refugees. He was a powerful yet lonely voice from the beginning against the invasion of Iraq. He stood for human rights abroad (from Chile to the former Soviet Union) and was a leader in the cause of poverty relief for the poorest nations of Africa and the world. He believed in a strong national defense and he also unceasingly pursued and advanced the work of nuclear arms control.

He was considered the conscience of his party, and also the Senate's master of forging compromise with the other party. Known as the 'Lion of the Senate', Senator Kennedy was widely respected on both sides of the aisle for his commitment to progress and his ability to legislate.

Senator Kennedy was Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Previously he was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and served on that committee for many years. He also served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. He was a leader of the Congressional Friends of Ireland and helped lead the way toward peace on that island.

He was a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School. He lived in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with his wife Vicki. He is survived by her and their five children Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick Kennedy, and Curran and Caroline Raclin, and his sister Jean Kennedy Smith

Dr. Goroll, a general internist, is professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and physician of Medical Service, Massachusetts General Hospital. He graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University and cum laude from Harvard Medical School. He is one of the modern pioneers in primary care, having initiated the nations first residency track in primary care internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (where he served his residency), and lead-authored the first textbook of primary care internal medicine (Primary Care Medicine, now in its 6th edition). In his role as a clinician educator, he chaired Harvards Core Medicine Clerkship and led a national initiative to reform the curriculum of the Core Medicine Clerkship, emphasizing generalist competencies and outpatient training. In 2000, he received the National Award for Career Achievement in Medical Education from the Society for General Internal Medicine, and in 2003, the Gold Foundation Award for Medical Humanism from the HMS graduating class. He has also served as president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and as Massachusetts Governor of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Goroll continues to practice and teach primary care internal medicine at the MGH while actively working on health care reform, serving as chair emeritus of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and as chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Primary Care Reform. He enjoys sailing and travel.

Dorchester native Peter Meade will be the founding president and CEO of a newly created institute named for Senator Edward M. Kennedy that will be housed on Columbia Point. Meade, a close friend and ally of the state's senior senator, is presently the managing director of the Boston-based public relations firm Rasky Baerlein. Meade has been an influential voice in the region's political and business worlds for decades. He cut his teeth in the trenches of Dorchester's wards and precincts working in the administrations of former Boston mayor Mayor Kevin White, including a term as Commissioner of Parks and Recreation. More recently, he was the executive vice president of corporate affairs at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and has worked as a radio and TV broadcaster at WBZ.

Blackford Middleton is Director of Clinical Informatics Research & Development, and Chairman of the Center for Information Technology Leadership at Partners Healthcare System, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. As Director for CIRD, he leads product management for the Partners EMR, patient portal, enterprise clinical decision support and knowledge management services, supports enterprise clinical systems strategy development, and conducts clinical informatics research. He was a founder of CITL at Partners in early 2002, and leads its research in value-based technology assessment. In 2004, CITL and CIRD joined the NLM sponsored Boston-area Informatics Research and Training Fellowship Program, where Dr. Middleton serves as Fellowship Program Director for CIRD and CITL NLM Fellows. Dr. Middleton serves on the National Committee of Vital and Health Statistics and also on the Steering Committee of Connecting for Health at the Markle Foundation, the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Aligning Forces for Quality, and several Editorial Boards. Dr. Middleton is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society.